Has the regeneracy arrived?

[Eric the Green]

(01-23-2017, 05:53 PM)linus Wrote: Did you read that TNR piece asking aloud if Trump will be like Carter?

I'm wondering if a better analogy may turn out to be Andrew Johnson.

I wasn't a political science major and this is the first I heard of "the Politics Presidents Make" but there would seem to be no place in Skowronek’s theory for Andrew Johnson, one of most reviled and least successful presidents, who immediately followed (rather than preceded) a (presumably) "reconstructive" presidency. I'm not going to speculate about what happens, but if Obama turns out to be a genuinely transformative president, in the manner of (but to a lesser extant than) Lincoln and FDR, and Jackson and Reagan, on the right, then Trump may be compared in a certain sense to Andrew Johnson, who gave the South wide latitude to do Reconstruction Their Way, and came to be widely opposed in the North, as well as of course impeached. And he was himself succeeded by someone who sought to extend Lincoln's achievements and legacy, rather than forestall or repeal it.

The way things are going, your analogy may be quite prescient. What will bigots get away with doing if the government no longer enforces civil rights for Americans?

People are going to need to stand up to what appears to be Trump's way. Here's what People for the American Way says:

First, Trump picked arch civil rights foe Jeff Sessions as his nominee for attorney general.
Then, it was reported last week that Trump’s budget blueprint slashes funding for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Now, Trump has tapped anti-civil rights, right-wing lawyer John Gore, to head the Civil Rights Division!

These headlines tell the story:
Trump's Pick to Enforce Civil Rights Is an Expert at Defending GOP Voting Laws (New York Magazine - Jan 21, 2017)
Donald Trump's Pick to Enforce Civil Rights Is a Civil Rights Disaster (Slate - Jan 20, 2017)
Top Trump Civil Rights Official Is An Expert At Defending Republican Redistricting (BuzzFeed - January 20, 2017)

The good news is that this is a Senate-confirmable position, so we can fight to STOP the confirmation of John Gore!

MILLIONS marched this weekend around the country and around the world to let the Trump administration and its allies know:

• More of us opposed their campaign and oppose their agenda than support them, and WE ARE STILL HERE,
  
• We do not approve of the way they won office,
  
• We will not stand for the continued reckless inflaming of fear and bigotry, and
  
• We will FIGHT BACK attacks on our fundamental rights and attacks on vulnerable and marginalized communities.   
  

Now it’s up to all of us to turn the energy from the marches into sustained action.

We’re still battling some of Trump’s worst cabinet picks and attacks that have already begun from his administration and Republicans in Congress. The nomination of John Gore is one more action that flies in the face of core American values and must be opposed.

The Gore nomination, like the Sessions nomination, is also about Trump and Republicans wanting to pack the Department of Justice with people who will carry out their voter suppression agenda, as a means of tilting the playing field in future elections and holding onto power. We can’t let them do it!
Thanks for continuing to stand up and be part of the resistance!
-- Ben Betz, Online Engagement Director